The Government has announced a £2 million boost to help local councils in flood hit areas to draw up emergency plans should major floods hit – a small but welcome increase in funding at a time of massive cuts.

Flooding is a major threat in the Yorkshire Dales, with towns like Skipton, Ripon, and several villages in the mid-section of the River Aire under regular threat.

One of the causes was large scale drainage of areas of upland in the last century, destroying the ability of peat moors to act as a sponge to hold back excessive rain and snow melt. Recent wet summers have added to the threat.

Although £2 million is a paltry sum compared with the demands for building new flood defences, it is in addition to existing anti-flooding grants and will allow county councils to draw up plans of likely flooding threats and draw up action plans to tackle future outbreaks.

Lack of future planning has meant that disastrous flooding in recent years in Cumbria and Hull has taken local communities by surprise.

Says Environment Minister Richard Benson: “Dealing with flooding is a matter that this government takes very seriously and our Structural Reform Plan launched earlier this month commits us to implementing the findings of the Pitt Review to improve our flood defences.

“Local authorities clearly have a vital role in managing flood risk and we aim to give them all the support we can, not only through funding for defences, but also by providing guidance on planning for a flood and training for staff.”